Monday, November 15, 2010

Day 7 Switzerland—Swiss Open Air Museum

Todd arrived late and we stayed up to play games before we were all ready to crash for the night.

I think that is Dad mummified under those covers. . . (Thanks for the photo Todd!)

We had another great breakfast and headed out to the Swiss Open Air Museum!

This is one of the few pictures on our trip with everyone in it! We wanted a shot of the backs of our sweatshirts. . .and just so you know. . .we smiled for that picture too! It was fantastic! It’s a 160 acre area where they have carefully dismantled then transported and reconstructed all kinds of buildings from around Switzerland. It has over 100 historic buildings, some as old as the 1600’s! They also have several farmhouses, complete with a pig sty and other animals. Some of the homes have workshops with people working with authentic tools and machinery. Weaving, spinning, pottery, cheese-making, yarn dyeing, etc. It was a great way to spend the day. For any other Mormon’s out there. . it’s a lot like “Nauvoo” for Switzerland. Here’s a gazillion pictures from our day! (Be sure to at least scroll through for the story of the rest of our day!)

They had a chocolate factory next door that we popped into to continue our Chocolate Taste Testing for our trip.

It was getting a bit late, but we decided to try to make it to Lauterbrunnen (many waters), to see if we could see Trummelbach falls. We were too late (they were closed), but we were smart and decided to head up the canyon a bit to Steckelberg, the farthest you could go by car. It was a wonderful little town surrounded by waterfalls, and tons of campers and hikers.

Julie was by far the “pickiest” of us as far as eating (right, Julie?), so when she saw hamberger on the menu. . .she ordered. Little did she know it would be “double hamberger. . .hold the bun”. You can tell by Heidi’s face that we all thought it was quite funny!

During dinner these 2 farmers just started walking their cows right up the road! Only in Switzerland.

We checked into our Hotel in Interlaken, it was a funny little place. A dog (Monty) that would just nuzzle himself right through your door at any time, the emergency fire hose for the place was hooked to the communal shower down the hall, and the stairs were completely slanted. I’ve never had a drink of alcohol, but boy, I sure felt a little drunk walking up those stairs! Dad even set down his apple by his door one morning, and it rolled all the way down the hall! It was a great little place with plenty of character. We did love it because all four girls got to bunk up together. However, we did not love the laundry situation. . .this was our first chance to do laundry, so the gal showed us how to start it up. . .and she just kept loading and shoving, and loading and shoving. . .we came down later and when I opened the door the water came POURING out! Lisa and I were laughing so hard we didn’t know what to do, we tried to wring it out in the sink, then dry it in shifts. . . .well, about 3 hour later, we decided to just hang it to dry on our balcony chairs. . .yep, unmentionables and everything. It was SO soaked.